This game is held together with bubblegum and dollar store glue, but I'm still enjoying it somewhat.
I'm playing a cut-down version of the game so far, with an Xbox One controller and moderate assists, maximum visual quality except for the post-processing noise to avoid blurring, no wear, no rules and penalties, races of 15% length. I can't imagine what it would be like to try to play this game as a serious role-playing driver experience.
I've rarely been able to complete two races without having the game crash, mostly while using Alt+Tab. The transitions between phases of play are uncertain or tedious at best, with the control of the car being relinquished to the driver at different moments, at different speeds, different gears, and sometimes face-planting into the wall.
Basically, every event that I play consists of 10 minutes of practice, qualifying, and then the 15% race. This creates smaller bites of the game to rediscover the tracks and the feel of NASCAR after skipping the two previous game platforms for the series.
The Charlotte Roval still sees the AI using the wrong line, and the spotter calls cars going the other way on the other side of the wall, and just like Indy Road Course, the qualifying position is not used for the starting position during the race. Very fun race going through the field to finish in the top 20.
The field at Michigan was spreading in various groups until I decided to pit by myself under green. The skip to pit transition seems to have grouped all the cars back together as if there had been a yellow flag when I got out of the pits. I assume the yellow flags were disabled by my options, but it's not clear anywhere.
The racing at Dover was very fun, lots of side-by-side action, with slow passing taking several laps, some odd pack racing.
The Indy Road Course has completely busted AI with an incredibly slow start, bad pace, and the qualifying not being applied, for an awful experience.
I gave up on Martinsville after not finding a way to adjust the gearing. I can't stand hitting the rev limiter twice a lap, it feels awful.
The pitting is different depending on the track and session, so sometimes you can drive down pit lane, sometimes it makes you stop right after the line and you respawn there after the pit stop, same with taking control of the car. The car setup is a simple slider between tight and loose, which works well enough for using a controller, but the in-race pit menu includes several adjustments, so who knows what's going on there...
This is the most fun I've had with a NASCAR game in a long time, and I'm confident that the extra year leading to N22 Reignited is what the game needed all along, so don't give up hope for the future. As it is, N21 is simply too broken to recommend buying to anyone, but the experience that I describe might just be enough for an eventual sale, especially if more fixes are brought to 21 during the development of 22.
I'm playing a cut-down version of the game so far, with an Xbox One controller and moderate assists, maximum visual quality except for the post-processing noise to avoid blurring, no wear, no rules and penalties, races of 15% length. I can't imagine what it would be like to try to play this game as a serious role-playing driver experience.
I've rarely been able to complete two races without having the game crash, mostly while using Alt+Tab. The transitions between phases of play are uncertain or tedious at best, with the control of the car being relinquished to the driver at different moments, at different speeds, different gears, and sometimes face-planting into the wall.
Basically, every event that I play consists of 10 minutes of practice, qualifying, and then the 15% race. This creates smaller bites of the game to rediscover the tracks and the feel of NASCAR after skipping the two previous game platforms for the series.
The Charlotte Roval still sees the AI using the wrong line, and the spotter calls cars going the other way on the other side of the wall, and just like Indy Road Course, the qualifying position is not used for the starting position during the race. Very fun race going through the field to finish in the top 20.
The field at Michigan was spreading in various groups until I decided to pit by myself under green. The skip to pit transition seems to have grouped all the cars back together as if there had been a yellow flag when I got out of the pits. I assume the yellow flags were disabled by my options, but it's not clear anywhere.
The racing at Dover was very fun, lots of side-by-side action, with slow passing taking several laps, some odd pack racing.
The Indy Road Course has completely busted AI with an incredibly slow start, bad pace, and the qualifying not being applied, for an awful experience.
I gave up on Martinsville after not finding a way to adjust the gearing. I can't stand hitting the rev limiter twice a lap, it feels awful.
The pitting is different depending on the track and session, so sometimes you can drive down pit lane, sometimes it makes you stop right after the line and you respawn there after the pit stop, same with taking control of the car. The car setup is a simple slider between tight and loose, which works well enough for using a controller, but the in-race pit menu includes several adjustments, so who knows what's going on there...
This is the most fun I've had with a NASCAR game in a long time, and I'm confident that the extra year leading to N22 Reignited is what the game needed all along, so don't give up hope for the future. As it is, N21 is simply too broken to recommend buying to anyone, but the experience that I describe might just be enough for an eventual sale, especially if more fixes are brought to 21 during the development of 22.